The New healthcare possibilities

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Permalink Reply by Lady O. on June 18, 2009 at 11:14pm

I think overall it’s a good thing, or at least better than what we currently have going on. The new plan aims at improving care after hospitalizations and reducing hospital readmission rates, reducing Medicare overpayments to private insurers through competitive payments, reducing the cost of medication, improving the payment accuracy of Medicare/Medicaid to minimize the risk of healthcare insurance fraud, and ultimately develop a health care system that will pay for quantity of services—not quality; that is to say, “pay for performance”, where doctors will be compensated on the quality of service they render.

We will see, though, won’t we? I believe they have an October deadline in mind.

What do you think?

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on June 18, 2009 at 11:45pm

Even though I'm not sure you meant what you said, I believe that there's a good chance that we will indeed get "a health care system that will pay for quantity of services, not quality..." as you stated. I'm just not sure that we'll get the same quantity, either. The system we have has problems, but there's a lot of potential for the changes to make it worse, not better.



Lady O. said:

I think overall it’s a good thing, or at least better than what we currently have going on. The new plan aims at improving care after hospitalizations and reducing hospital readmission rates, reducing Medicare overpayments to private insurers through competitive payments, reducing the cost of medication, improving the payment accuracy of Medicare/Medicaid to minimize the risk of healthcare insurance fraud, and ultimately develop a health care system that will pay for quantity of services—not quality; that is to say, “pay for performance”, where doctors will be compensated on the quality of service they render.

We will see, though, won’t we? I believe they have an October deadline in mind.

What do you think?

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Permalink Reply by Nathan on June 18, 2009 at 11:49pm

Well Lady O. Im not sure, I want to think it will make things better I dont really see how it could get much worse for us with out losing EVERYONE from our field..... I dont know. I wish I did.

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Permalink Reply by Lady O. on June 18, 2009 at 11:51pm

No need to speculate, Ben. I'm well aware of what I stated. ;-)

Ben Waller said:

Even though I'm not sure you meant what you said...



Lady O. said:

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Permalink Reply by Lady O. on June 18, 2009 at 11:57pm

I know. That's why we will have to wait n' see, as is always the case, isn't it?

nathan said:

Well Lady O. Im not sure, I want to think it will make things better I dont really see how it could get much worse for us with out losing EVERYONE from our field..... I dont know. I wish I did.

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Permalink Reply by Jasen Adam on June 19, 2009 at 12:28am

I myself am not onboard with it. I have my reservations about the government messing around with healthcare. The way I see it the have already screwed Medicare/SSI up and look at the VA medical system. If these previous stories are anything close to what we are about to read, then we are in for a world of hurt.

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Durkee on June 19, 2009 at 12:41am

Well for starters we won't have 50 million uninsured in this country. Right now we are on par with most 3rd world countries.

-Tom

MPH - Healthcare Mgmt & Policy Analysis, '06
MBA- Healthcare/Medical Administration '03
MHCA - Healthcare Finance & Administration '02

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on June 19, 2009 at 1:15am

Thomas, you can't be serious in comparing the U.S. to a 3rd world country. Let's compare overall health care in the U.S. to any 3rd world country you'd care to name...

Somalia? Haiti? Ethiopia? Bangladesh? Liberia?

Let's stack up our life expectancy, infant mortality, or even our EMS system quality against any of those 3rd world examples...we win. Let's stack up our standard of living against those countries while we're at it.

For that matter, how many 3rd world countries have 50,000 citizens, and how many of us would want to live in one that did?

Our system obviously has problems and there are things that could be improved, but the assumption that any change will automatically be better is a high-risk assumption with little evidence to support it.

BTW, are you going to pay for all of those uninsured people you want to insure? Remember, the government doesn't have any money with which to insure them. That money is - collectively - OUR money.




Thomas Durkee said:

Well for starters we won't have 50 million uninsured in this country. Right now we are on par with most 3rd world countries.

-Tom

MPH - Healthcare Mgmt & Policy Analysis, '06
MBA- Healthcare/Medical Administration '03
MHCA - Healthcare Finance & Administration '02

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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on June 19, 2009 at 1:17am

Lady O, In other words, you want a federal healthcare bureaucracy with the efficiency of the Veteran's Administration, the financial acumen of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and the compassion of the IRS managing our health care? :-)


Lady O. said:

I think overall it’s a good thing, or at least better than what we currently have going on. The new plan aims at improving care after hospitalizations and reducing hospital readmission rates, reducing Medicare overpayments to private insurers through competitive payments, reducing the cost of medication, improving the payment accuracy of Medicare/Medicaid to minimize the risk of healthcare insurance fraud, and ultimately develop a health care system that will pay for quantity of services—not quality; that is to say, “pay for performance”, where doctors will be compensated on the quality of service they render.

We will see, though, won’t we? I believe they have an October deadline in mind.

What do you think?

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Durkee on June 19, 2009 at 3:16am

You better check those statistics again, Ben... Infant mortality, life expectancy, burden of disease..... etc.

Start here: http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat/2009/en/index.html
and here: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

and take a quick look at this: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundamerica/

and then when you learn the dollar amount that the U.S. spends on healthcare (well over $6K per person per year...far ahead of anyone else), yet the results are on par with, oh, say... Slovenia, then come back and we'll talk. I will be happy.... more than happy... to chat with you about it.

-Tom

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Permalink Reply by Lady O. on June 19, 2009 at 3:33am

I would like to see people who can’t afford the medications they need…afford them; I would like to see an end to people with pre-existing health problems denied healthcare; I would like to see patients accept my care when they dial 9-1-1, instead of declining my offer because they’re afraid their insurance won’t pay for it. That’s what I would like to see, Ben.

But listen, you have your opinion, I have mine. I was simply stating mine in response to the thread. I think I know what you’re looking for, and I’m not giving it to you. Engaging you in a debate over why or why not the new healthcare reform will work is futile; we both know we’re not going to change each other’s mind—and the only thing we’ll accomplish here is an annoying barrage of endless threads and a fight to see who gets the last word…as many threads here seem to be. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I mind a good debate; however, debates of a political nature, by nature (Ha! notice the play on words?), are quite pointless, in my opinion—and rarely kept civil to begin with—so I stay away from them.

Having said that, do you really care why I favor the proposed healthcare reform? No, you don’t, Ben. Do I really care what you think? Nope, respectfully. I believe we’ve both arrived at our decision after careful review of the data. Unfortunately, as it is in politics, usually, the beauty of the melody we’re played eventually fades away; only to later unmask the reality of its hideous noise. So, we’ll just have to wait n’ see.

Okay, back to EMS realted topics...


Ben Waller said:

Lady O, In other words, you want a federal healthcare bureaucracy with the efficiency of the Veteran's Administration, the financial acumen of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and the compassion of the IRS managing our health care? :-)


Lady O. said:

I think overall it’s a good thing, or at least better than what we currently have going on. The new plan aims at improving care after hospitalizations and reducing hospital readmission rates, reducing Medicare overpayments to private insurers through competitive payments, reducing the cost of medication, improving the payment accuracy of Medicare/Medicaid to minimize the risk of healthcare insurance fraud, and ultimately develop a health care system that will pay for quantity of services—not quality; that is to say, “pay for performance”, where doctors will be compensated on the quality of service they render.

We will see, though, won’t we? I believe they have an October deadline in mind.

What do you think?

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Durkee on June 19, 2009 at 3:59am

I know this seems counter-intuitive and hard to believe, but we can save.... yes SAVE money on the total cost of healthcare with the proposed reform. See? I told you it was hard to believe. By eliminating the bulk of administrative costs, eliminating runaway lawsuits, eliminating wasteful "defensive medicine", controlling runaway pharmaceutical costs, and, most importantly, PRACTICING PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE, it has been estimated that the U.S. taxpayer can save...yes, SAVE well over $300 billion a year, with greater outcomes and better quality of life. Check it out:

http://www.healthreform.gov/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/health_care/

and the Robert Wood Johnson here: http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=42970


Remember that the U.S. spends over $2 TRILLION a year on healthcare.

Now.... I don't ever...ever, ever... ever ever ever ever ever ever, believe anything the U.S. government tells me. I'm just California like that. So I went and got three, count 'em three master degrees on this so I can both understand and explain why our healthcare system is broke, and what the reform plans are to fix it.

I'd be happy to discuss this with you.
-Tom

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